Los Alamitos' St. Isidore: A landmark in limbo

Services haven't been held at St. Isidore's for 14 years, but people in Los Alamitos seem to think it will always be a place for worship.

“I don't know why people keep thinking that this is an old Mexican Catholic Church,” Maria Teresa Diaz said last week at St. Isidore Historical Plaza. “We keep telling them that it is not. It's closed. It's just a historical landmark.”

Albeit a landmark that could be wiped off the map, if volunteers like Diaz are unable to raise enough money to preserve it in the next eight months.

St. Isidore is the city's oldest public building, and it could function as the heart of the city, according to the group Comité del Amor, which already hosts public outreach services and lots of small fundraisers.

Comité hopes to buy St. Isidore so it can use its Spanish revivalist chapel for wedding receptions – think wedding portraits at the altar or next to the nearly 80-year-old stained-glass windows – and keep the city's history alive, though donations will have to speed up if the volunteers are to buy the old church from its new owner.

Who owns the property is one of the few cloudy areas surrounding that deal. Comité is renting St. Isidore from the Diocese of Orange with a view toward buying the property, valued at $1.2 million, by May 31. The diocese transferred the deed to St. Hedwig, the local Catholic parish, last year, though it didn't announce the deal.

Time is running out and the future of St. Isidore as a historical plaza remains in limbo.

Here are a few areas of uncertainty Comité del Amor is struggling to clear up:

COST

For starters, Comité board President Bruce Murphy doesn't think the group will have to pay the full price.

Talks with the diocese are just restarting, Murphy said, but he thinks the $1.2 million appraisal overstated the price of the property.

“I don't think that was accurate in 2006 when it was done,” he said.

St. Isidore has a long way to go regardless. Murphy said the board has raised $260,000 so far.

Diaz and other volunteers are confident they can raise enough money to buy St. Isidore as new fundraising efforts – like this weekend's big fiesta and a membership drive that offers discounts to local stores (both in their second year) – gather steam.

President for only a year, Murphy has organized St. Isidore Historical Plaza into a more streamlined business outfit and has received verbal commitments for loans from two banks, if the price makes sense.

“They've at least given us a verbal go-ahead when we talked to them to know that, within parameters, we can go forward.”

OWNERSHIP

Comité has been bargaining with the Diocese of Orange for 12 years, almost as long as the church has been decommissioned. The diocese closed it in 1999, due to earthquake-proofing costs, according to volunteers.

But it appears there's a new party at the table – the property's new owner, St. Hedwig Catholic Church.

A grant deed provided by city officials shows that the diocese transferred the property to St. Hedwig on June 27, 2012. Steven Mendoza, the city's director of community development, said he was surprised to see St. Hedwig owns the property.

Murphy also was surprised by the transfer. He said he's spoken with the Rev. Christopher Heath, pastor at St. Hedwig, about the purchase, and believes negotiations won't be affected by which part of the Catholic Church owns the building.

Nor does it change church policy, according to Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the diocese.

“St. Hedwig is ostensibly the owner of the property, but there's no change,” Lilyengren said.

St. Hedwig did not respond to requests for comment.

EXTENDING THE LEASE

If fundraising and loans don't add up to a million dollars, or a wealthy philanthropist fails to appear out of the blue, pushing back the deadline is another option. But it would come at a steep price.

Comité has rented the facility at $500 per month for over six years with the understanding that that money would go toward the purchasing price, Murphy said. The group also paid two installments of $50,000 to the diocese.

If Comité can't come up with enough to buy St. Isidore, all that money would be returned to the group, which would in turn return it to donors who've put in more than $100, according to volunteer Marilynn Poe, a former mayor.

But that arrangement goes out the window if Comité seeks another extension; the group already extended its loan twice, Lilyengren said.

“It becomes hard money and it doesn't apply to the purchase price,” Murphy said. “In other words, they keep it.”

CITY SUPPORT

It's unclear to what extent the city can or will intervene on St. Isidore's behalf.

Diaz, Poe and Mayor Warren Kusumoto said there was support inside City Hall for some kind of contribution to the cause, but it's likelier to come in waived administrative fees than large amounts of cash.

Kusumoto said he thinks the building is worth saving but should be done with private money. Taxpayer dollars should only be dedicated to St. Isidore if taxpayers vote for it, he said.

“People have struggles with just their day-to-day living, and anything we take from them in the way of money that goes to city coffers, it's money that's not working for the people,” Kusumoto said.

For his part, Mendoza was confident that no matter what happens, the chapel will at least be preserved.

He compared it to such preservation projects as the Packing House in Anaheim and the Long Beach Art Museum – both private buildings maintained with a public use.

“What it becomes we don't know. What we do know is there is a part of it that needs to be preserved,” Mendoza said. “It's a goal in our (city's) General Plan and, hopefully, our future general plan.”

The vote on the future general plan looms in the next few months. By then, the prospects for St. Isidore may be clearer.